What do I do with the rest of my time, you may ask? Well, there's a lot (and I mean a lot) of sitting around outside of my host family's house with the family drinking terere, listening to the blaring radio that never stops and chatting (I don't actually do the chatting, I just sit and smile/stare)with the numerous people who are constantly stopping by on their motos because the family has an almacen (a little store) out of the front of it. We've got the biggest almacen on Cuatro Linea, I'll have you know. And back to the radio subject really quick: seriously, the thing is only turned off for a few hours during the night. From 6 in the morning until at least 11 at night, every radio in every house in campo Paraguay is blasting a mixture of terrible reggaeton, Paraguayan polka, and this weird catchy synthesized cachonga(?)crap. The only respite is when the electricity goes out (thank god it happens fairly often) or I get the hell out of site. Like right now. But unfortunately this internet cafe is also playing the same music. Of course. So, back to what I do with my time..........lots of sitting around, I do my laundry quite a bit (which takes forever when you do it by hand---get down on your knees and thank someone for your washing machine immediately!), I walk around the 'hood trying to talk to other families when I build up enough courage, I shuck a lot of corn and shell a lot of beans, I try to study a lot but I usually end up falling asleep.....etc, etc, etc. Exciting, I know. But it's the summer which means it's freakin' hot and no one (not just me) is doing much of anything. So I'm doing exactly what I should be doing--being Paraguayan (at least that's what I keep telling myself).
My Paraguayn host sister, Andresa, even promoted me to the level of a 'norteguaya' (instead of just a 'norte') last week when I was helping out with the family pig slaughter. That's right, I helped slaughter a pig. I didn't do any of the killing, but I did watch it all and helped with the cleaning/gutting/skinning afterwards. This is what I learned: cleaning pig hair off of pig skin is disgusting and it gets everywhere, they keep the hooves but I'm not sure what they do with them (ours were sitting in the kitchen for days before mysteriously disappearing), Paraguayans have mad skills with the machete--just a few whacks here and there and *waalaa* pig carcass is cut up, half of the rib cage is the heaviest portion of meat/bones, there is about as much weight in fat as there is in meat and bones, every part of the pig is used. EVERY PART....... All that fat I just mentioned, yeah, that too. After all the meat was separated into is respective body parts and hanging from the ceiling in the kitchen (I accidently ran into the rib cage of couple of times---gross!!!), the women spend the entire afternoon chopping up the solid fat and frying it into chicharrones. I thought chicarrones were the grossest food imaginable until yesterday when they whipped out this strange meat roll thing all tied up with string. Think jelly roll for image purposes but made out of 'meat'. I asked what it was but everyone refused to tell me, they just wanted me to try some of it, saying it was he'iterei (super delicious). I agreed to a small bite and managed to choke it down, but I never want to eat it again. Definitely not he'iterei in my book. Especially when I figure out (and they confirmed this) that it was the scraps of pig meat rolled up in a pig skin/fat layer. So freakin' gross. I still can't stop thinking about it......never again.
So that's about it on my end of things. I received a bunch of packages in Asuncion in December right before I came out to my site that I need to extend lots of thanks for. Matt--you're so awesome, especially with the added bonus of leftover Halloween candy. I was a huge hit that day. Cousin Sarah--you are also awesome. The folders were perfect and I use the notebook everyday now. Parents and grandparents--thanks, thanks, thanks.....keep em' coming! The only thing I can think of now that I want (don't really need anything at the moment) is high quality instant coffee, like the Starbucks singles I've recently been introduced to. I know, I hate Starbucks just as much as the rest of you but their instant coffee is damn good and a kicks Nescafe's ass (that's all we can really get down here). And letters are always always always always wanted.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and happy New Year's. It was a very sad Christmas for me being all alone (mentally at least) and away from everyone I love. I spent the new year's with friends by a lake in a forest reserve, so that was much better but I still miss you all and hope that I'll be getting some visitors later on this year!!!!!!!
This computer is weird so I can't label the photos below, but most of them are from the 11 hour walk/pilgrimmage we did to Caacupe on December 8. Hundreds of thousands of Paraguayans make this pilgrimmage every year, so we decided to join in the fun. The first pic is our whole group, Americans and some of our Paraguayan host family members. The next is us walking, still in daylight, followed by us still walking in the dark at the crest of 'the' big hill into what looked like the apocalypse. Then we crashed in the park when we finally arrived with thousands of others. The last photo (if it works, I'm skeptical) is me working with Africanized bees. That's right, killer bees...........
